News > Press > Wildfire Ups Berardi, and Adds Weisgal as the Company Glows and Grows

Wildfire Ups Berardi, and Adds Weisgal
as the Company Glows and Grows

TORRANCE, Calif. USA, April 30, 2008 -- Wildfire Inc., the standard-setter in UV (ultraviolet aka "black light") products, has promoted John Berardi to President and hired Jonathan Weisgal as V.P., sales and marketing. Both moves were announced by Wildfire chair Laurence Friedman, who founded the company in 1989.

"John Berardi has been with us for 12 years and has been hugely responsible for our growth, whileJohn Berardi maintaining the quality that Wildfire is known for," says Friedman. "Bringing Jonathan Weisgal on board complements that growth - with all the new applications of UV lighting, it is essential for us to have a voice in the marketplace aggressively educating the buyer about our product."

"The science of UV has been around forever, but Wildfire is always coming up with new and dynamic uses for the technology," says Berardi, a hands-on executive who got his start as a lighting tech on features, TV and commercials. In the course of his tenure since joining the company in 1996, Berardi re-engineered the core product line to interface with intelligent lighting fixtures and consoles and pioneered Wildfire's special UV printing process. He oversaw development of the SableLux line of high-output, liner fluorescent lamps, the IronArc line of metal halide lamps and the new TracFX compact fluorescent series, which is nine times more powerful than today's ultraviolet LED fixtures. Berardi also improved Wildfire's already outstanding line of fluorescent paints and dyes.

Ultraviolet effects come about when a long-wavelength UV fixture with a peak output of 365nm (nanometers) interacts with a fluorescent object, such as a painted theatrical backdrop. The UV light makes the fluorescent colors visible. The best UV effects are vivid and bright, with rich color.

Jonathan Weisgal comes to Wildfire from the film industry where he spent 10 years in international marketing and sales and then headed up Creative Artist Agency's independent packaging department for six years. He recently had a production partnership with Danny Devito.